What hope for workers in 2021?

SUNDAY ADEPOJU reflects on the activism or otherwise of the organised labour in 2020 and earlier vis-à-vis the workers cum public expectations as critical stakeholders in the polity, as politicians embark on subtle horsetrading ahead 2023 elections in the country.

DATING back to the precolonial era, labour movement has always been in the vanguard of the political evolution of Nigeria. It consolidated the role stronger during the prolonged military interregnum. The organised labour was the major pillar in the bitter struggle against the annulment of June that culminated in the hurried exit of the military from power in 1999. Through massive mobilisation of the citizens, the organised labour shut down the country in the demand that Nigeria return to civil rule. However, today, there is a recurrence of the expression that “the organised labour has become a toothless dog.” Unlike the expected role of the organised labour to always seek the welfare of the working population and the Nigerian masses, it appears that the labour has waned in its bid to, apart from its core responsibilities ensure that nation rides on a good pedestal by making lives bearable for the masses. As it has been the tradition from the past, from 2019, the labour brought some issues forth to 2020.     Among the issues the labour brought to 2029 was the N30,000.00 new minimum wage that was passed into law in February 2011. Even though the government did not meet up with the proposed N56,000.00, about eight states have not been able to implement the N30,000.00. Since 2019, it has been a recurrent topical issue and people were still expecting it in 2020. The implication is that in this 2021, the labour still has a responsibility of meeting the expectations of the workers and the masses. There are still the problems of providing good leadership; restoring workers’ confidence and sustaining the tempo in this New Year.

So, there is a yearning gap between the labour and workers and, indeed, the generality of Nigerians pertaining to the wishes and aspirations of the people especially at this austere period. With this labour appears to have disappointed many, going by the opinions of most workers on the level of poverty, unemployment, job losses due to general economic downturn, leadership ineptitude, price instability of crude oil globally and the harmful outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic which necessitated the lockdown of the country. At the period, workers were the most vulnerable during the general lockdown of the country.

The current unemployment rate in Nigeria averages 12.84 per cent from 2006 until 2020, reaching an all-time high of 27.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020. More worrisome, the population of the unemployed youths in the country exceeds the population of 35 of Africa’s 54 countries. According to a statement by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), “Unemployment is caused by perennial under-funding of some critical sectors, especially the education sector which is grossly under-funded. The education sector is like a ‘power house’ that supplies every other sector. Unfortunately, the government has never given 10 percent of its annual budget even when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) stipulates 26.5 percent. It is laughable that at this age and time, only one in four Nigerians applying to university gets a spot. There is a dearth of creativity in the sector.”

The increasing cost of governance poses a challenge to the nation and it seems the labour feels unconcerned. Again, despite the stupendous borrowing by the government, Nigeria still overtook India in 2018 as the country with the most people in extreme poverty. It is regrettable that this is still the case, even though Nigeria ranks as the sixth oil producing country in the world.

Beyond these and apart from the spiraling effect of inflation, a lot of businesses either closed shops or were forced to prune their work force and slashed salaries and wages of their workers in an effort to remain afloat in their businesses. In effect, thousands of dependants of workers were in trouble as workers became incapable of meeting their obligations in many spheres.

 

Fuel price hikes

Another area where the labour falls short of public expectation is the incessant fuel price hikes with the attendant negative impact on the citizenry. Each time the government wanted to increase fuel price, the labour would act as if it was going to fight to the last pint of blood. Ranging from the first hike in the price of fuel in the polity October 1978 to the present, government, labour and major oil stakeholders have reached countless agreements meant, as claimed, to mitigate the negative impact of such increases. Every attempt to deregulate the price of petroleum products has largely been unsuccessful but often accompanied by various compensation schemes to mitigate the effect of the price hikes. During the Obasanjo era (1976 – 1979) as head of state, the price hiked from 8.8k to 15.3 per litre. As palliative, during his reign, education was heavily subsidised. The increase was part of the austerity measures introduced by the government due to fiscal imbalance arising from the populist posture of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime. Obasanjo introduced Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) in 1976 to boost food production.

During the Shagari era (1979 – 1983), the price was increased to 20k per litre. When Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida came in 1985, the price moved to 39.5k on March 31, 1986 and later to 42k on April 10, 1988. The regime had programmes like Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) and the the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in 1986 as well as building 23 Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depots to improve the availability of petroleum products.

The regimes of Chief Ernest Shonekan, Gen Sani Abacha and Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar (1993 to 1999) saw the price hiked to 70k on November 8, 1993. After forcefully taking power from the Interim National Government, Abacha reduced and later raised the price and established Petroleum Special Trust Fund (PTF) headed by Muhammadu Buhari and dedicated to the development of physical infrastructure and social services aimed at improving the people’s livelihood condition. Abacha also instituted a Federal Urban Mass Transit Agency to provide some 1000 mass transit vehicles at concessionary loan terms to transporters that would, in turn, charge affordable fares to commuters. Abubakar, having increased the price N25, maintained the palliative measures of Abacha.

As a democratic president, Olusegun Obasanjo met N25 per litre of fuel on ground and left N70 in 2007. At a point, in an agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its allies, each state got N100 million which was to be matched with N200 million. In addition, the era sustained the NDE and introduced National Poverty Eradication programmes (NAPEP) under the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). In June 2007, Musa Yar’Adua presidency reviewed it downward to N65. However, on Januray 12, 2012, the price was raised by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to N140 after the partial subsidy removal. Among other programmes, administrations had, also in the past, presented Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P); Free Basic Education, launched in 1999, Fertiliser E-Wallet; Special Public Work; Rural Employment Promotion; Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); Vocational Skills Development.

 

Hide and seek

The drama in all these cases is that the labour has continued to issue threats, with the government playing hide and seek with the labour by way of negotiations through ministers of labour and up till the present, Seantor Chris Ngige, with the labour leaders. The most recent one and the last increment and government’s hand-twisting the labour before reducing the price of petrol by N4 and announcing palliative including donation of mass transit buses. All these are like a drop in the ocean with salutary effect on the welfare of workers. The labour fails to achieve the core requests by workers, primarily a reversal to the prevailing price before the increase.

 

How NLC, others can regain public confidence

The Olugbon of Orile-Igbon, Oba Francis Olusola Alao knocked the labour, blaming it for its inability effect the desired change in the country. Oba Alao stated, “Gone are the days of true labor union activism which reflected integrity and uprightness. The present labour unions are not organised but disorganized and lack objectives of their calling. The labour needs restructuring, determination and sincerity of purpose in order to effect positive change. The labour of today must be reorganised and devoid of corruption in its affairs so that it can carry out anti corruption crusade effectively. They also need to have good orientation, good labour policies and proper discipline before agitating anti corruption, masses policies implementation during their engagements with government. In conclusion, let the labor union put their house in order.”

In his assessment of the activities of labour in  the country, a senior lecturer at the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Dr Babatunde Ojebuyi, recalled that NLC and others used to be the true conscience of the people., especially workers. He opined, “Organised labour in Nigeria used to be the masses’ savior, the last hope of the working class. In those glorious days, when NLC sneezed, the Federal Government must quiver. No government would conceive a potentially anti-masses policy without critically considering the consequences of a likely nationwide industrial action to be sanctioned by the almighty NLC. Unfortunately, that is now a history. The organised labour has now become irredeemably disorganised, disoriented, battered and fragmented. The roaring lions have metamorphosed into gazing puppets that no one really respects. It is a collective tragedy of the Nigerian masses that labour unions in Nigeria, today, have been effectively caged by the vicious ruling class. Maybe the only union yet to lose its worth and fangs is Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).”

An activist, Comrade Afeez Opeyemi also spoke on the trajectory of the labour in the history of the country. He said:, “Apparently, the labour of then was proactive and was instrumental to fight any erring government of the day. It can be reformed when its leaders and members are not longer involved in partisan politics. During the fuel price hike in 2012 and subsidy removal, the labour, with the support of civil societies, flooded Lagos to shutdown economic activities.”

To leading lights in the NLC, TUC and bodies making up the organised labour, the whole issue needs to be put in a proper perspective. Meanwhile, amid criticisms, ex-labour leaders countered the sole blame of the Nigeria’s challenges on the labour. Former TUC President, Comrade Peter Esele, maintained that the labour is primarily to see to welfare of workers, stressing that other things are secondary. He said, “That old era is almost gone because every society evolves. In the evolutionary process of labour and Nigeria, we always look for easy way out. I am happy that since I left, I have been commended by a lot of people. You want the organised labour to be your voice. In a normal setting, organised labour is not supposed to be your voice; it is supposed to be a voice for the workers.

“It is those people occupying political positions that must be held responsible for whatever ill that is bedeviling you and not organised labour. The labour is doing their best for their workers and those who elected them.”

Pioneer president of the NLC, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, said that, against the expectation of the public, labour leaders are also products of the Nigerian society.  He posited: “If you look at the crop of Nigerians we have today, whether a unionist or leader, are they not different from the crop of leaders that brought us independence? The workers and union leaders themselves don’t come from the moon. They are part of the Nigerian society. What most Nigerians believe is that once there is an industrial dispute between an employer and his employees, everything must end in strike. That’s the general belief but in my entire six years tenure as president of NLC, we went on strike only once and it lasted for three days.

“The labour leadership has not failed. But the door of dialogue must always be kept open no matter what happens. It calls for understanding and deliberations from both sides because when our common property is destroyed, it becomes the loss of all of us. So everything must be done to make sure that things don’t fall apart. To me, I don’t deliver judgment anyhow and all this while, I have always advised the union leaders because we only have this country.”

Sumonu, who was NLC president between 1978 and 1984, added, “The training and background that we had was such that if we believed that something was right, in the interest of the workers and that of the country, we were ready to reject any nonsense and do anything to achieve it. And then, it made us to be reliable. We didn’t fear the military government. But when the civilian regime of Shagari came in October, 1979, his first minister of labour, within two months of their government, started creating the labour committee of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and plotting how to divide Nigerian workers and disorganised the NLC. But fortunately for us because the workers had confidence in us, we survived it all. Sumonu hammered on the country’s financial and high cost of governance.

“We have to go back to true federalism and parliamentary system. It has been reported that about 52 per cent of Nigeria’s income is being consumed by its political system. There is nothing wrong in borrowing for development. Even without being an economist, I am opposed to borrowing for consumption because it will carry us nowhere,” he submitted.

Similarly, the NLC restated its commitment to discharge its responsibility to Nigerian workers and the people in the year ahead. It acknowledged the criticism that trailed its activities and performance in the previous years. Among the NLC’s agenda for the year included: campaign for decent work and protection of pensioners; prioritisation of the security of lives and property; promotion of good governance; economic recovery and resilience; strengthening tripartite relations; overcoming COVID-19. In the message signed by the NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the congress said that it appreciated the historical burden placed on its shoulders and “we remain committed to fully and truly discharging this responsibility to the Nigerian workers and people. Our unalloyed devotion to this call of duty would be renewed in the year ahead of us,” he added.

Wabba clarified that some misgivings were due to misunderstanding and mis-expectations on the role of labour in the contemporary industrial relations milieu. “While many perceive labour as the alternative army that can always unilaterally crush every adversarial policy and conduct of government and private sector employers, the truth is that the NLC is only a workers’ representative organisation whose primary duty is to project and protect the interest of Nigerian workers through dialogue, consultation, negotiations, collective bargaining and in extreme situation through resort to industrial actions. To insist on strike actions when the other party is ready to negotiate is not only a betrayal of genuine working-class struggle but also a capitulation to anarchism. Trade unionism is not exactly a subscription to anarcho-syndicalism. We are not anarchists,” Wabba said.

“Certainly, Nigerian workers and people deserve better in 2021 and the years beyond it. We deserve decent and living wages including the national minimum wage paid as and when due. We deserve an enabling work environment that satisfies the demands of 21st century occupational safety and health standards. Nigerian pensioners deserve prompt and adequate payment of their pension and sundry retirement benefits. Nigerian youths, the aged and the vulnerable among us deserve a sustainable social security scheme that provides meaningful support while unemployed, during sickness and at times of great need such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. In short, Nigerians deserve a full life.”

In the new year, will the NLC and its affiliate uniuon change tactics or consolidtae on the approach it has adopted in defending and protecing the rights and privileges of workers in the country? Politicinas are already at the starting blocvk for the 2023 general election in ns poite  in spite of a preponderance of issues already brought forward from 2020 concerning the welfare of workers and the larger society.

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